We planned the trip about six months ahead and six guys from the same school as Ingi (Spartan School of Aeoronautics) decided to come with us. Among us eight, two other girls decided to meet us in Perú, Lára, Ingi´s sister who lives in England and Gurrý, my friend who lives in Iceland. We were four who left Tulsa "International" Airport on the 22nd of june, the rest of the guys were going to meet us the day after in Perú. Altogether we were ten who went on this adventure and after staying one night in Lima we flew to Cuzco, a city that once was the capital of the Inca Empire (ca. 1100-1540 D.C.), a magnificent city that is located in a valley above 3600 meters. It was very strange to step out of the aircraft, the pure but thin mountain air was hard to breath at first but there was only one thing to do, get use to it. This was like stepping into a whole new world, not far from the one that you would imagine life in the times of the Incas, excluding the bilboards and the cars. We soon found our hostel where we had reservations and Sayda, a girl we had been in contact with through e-mail, was waiting there. She turned out to be a big help to us even though she didn´t know us at all. That just describes the helpfulness and kindness these people have to offer. The five of us, me, Ingi, Helgi, Einar and Lára (who had arrived from England) went out to take a look at the festival, there were probably more turists there than locals, we had coincided with the Inti Raymi, the Sun Festival which is the second biggest festival in S-America, after the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The rest of the group came the day after, Guðni, Stjáni, Otti, Helgi Fannar (from Tulsa) and Gurrý (from Iceland). We walked over a small mountain to Sachsayumán where the festival was at it´s peak. There we watched a big show where people were dressed like in the times of their anchestors (the Incas) and the Inca (the king) (a man in his role) spoke to the people. Later they would sacrifice a lama in honor of the sun, but fortunally we missed that ceremony. This whole festival is all because they have winter solstice there on the south side of the ecquator. I asked a policeman if he knew how many people were there and he said he thought it was close to 300 thousand. The locals celebrate this the same way their anchestors did and with similar costumes. In the days of the Incas the people got together from all the four corners of the Empire, or which today is Ecuador in the north and down to the middle of Chile in the south, also it covered most of Bolivia in the east. Everybody walked to this festival but the Incas didn´t know the wheel, they had made "roads" or walkways all over the Empire which was even bigger than the Roman Empire, more than thousands of kilometers which makes it a pretty good walk. We were tired after this little walk and didn´t look forward to monday, the day we would start the four day walk to Machu Picchu and few of us where in good shape.
The monday came, everybody was ready at 6:30 and the train left a little later. It took us about four hours to reach kilometer 88 where the four day Inca trail starts, at about 2300 meter hight. It is also possible to take the train all the way to the ruins and save your energy but it is much more exciting to do it yourself. It was a group full of energy that started to walk at noon but we weren´t as enthusiastic after couple of hours of walk. Then most of us had rented porters (indians) to carry the backpacks and that was a big relief. We the girls thought about renting donkeys to carry us but that was a little bit to much. Instead the donkeys carried stuff like coke, beer, food and things like that (not ours though). After about six hours of walk we had reached 3000 meters hight and a little camping place where we put down our tents and ate the little thing we had the energy to prepare. We had borrowed the tents, pots, primuses and all that stuff. You can also do the trail with a travel agency and then everything is ready (food and tents) when arrived on the camping place but we wanted to do it "the hard way". Some of us regreted that though. After some band-aiding and massageing people went into their sleeping bags. The night wasn´t very comfortable but we just had to take that, we were to tired to let it bother us. We crawled out of the tents at sunrise or around 7 o´clock. There was a long and hard day ahead of us. It was already hard in the beginning and most of us blamed Ingi for "dragging" us into this. He had done this before (in 1996) and liked it so much so we just "had" to do it. It is a little bit strange that the higher you go you walk above the treeline, it´s good to have all those trees there, especially if you´re afraid of hights.The first 3 hours we walked (crawled) a steep trail, upwards all the way up to 4200 meters (about 14000 feet) and man, were we happy when we reached the peak called "El Paso", also called by the indians "The dead womans pass". We were really relieved, except that on the other side there was a valley and we had to go down more than 1000 meters and than up again. The landscape there is magnificent, it can´t be described in words. The highest peaks where covered with snow, the biggest one is called Veronica and is more than 6000 meters high. I have to explane one thing, you don´t get so tired physically but it´s the lack of oxygen that makes it so hard, a break every 5-10 minutes is just necessary to catch your breath.
Down in the valley there´s a camping place where some people stay the second night but we decided to keep on to make the third day a bit more easier. We walked up again 700 meters and there we paid the porters for carrying the backpacks, from now on we had to carry them. By this time the vegetation is starting to change, it´s more like a rain forrest, not strange since we were in the ourskirts of the Amazon jungle. It´s more humid and the birdlife is different. We raised our tents there up in the clouds, beside some old ruins from the Inca times. The view was fantastic and when the sun went down it started to get colder, we had to wear almost all our clothes during the night. We normally went to sleep at sunset (around 7) and woke up around sunrise (around 7). The stars glow so brightly in the complete dark, we could just spend hours looking at the sky, it´s the only light you get there during the night, unless you have a flashlight. The time doesn´t matter over there, you just have to use the daylight. We were so tired after this, the energy was almost all gone, but still we managed to cook a delicious meal from cans and dry food. Fortunately we didn´t have to bring water, the spring water running from those high mountains is as pure as the Icelandic spring water, no wonder, there is no pollution at this hight. Still we brought pills to clean the water but they just made it worse.
The third day was great, the vegetation and the birdlife was magnificent, not to mention all the ruins on the way, which are really interesting to explore. This was a very easy walk considering the one the day before. By the time this days walk was half over with we had to go down from 3700 meters to 2400 meters, and 1100 meters of that are steps which were really difficult at times. For Ingi this part of the trail was the hardest, his knees made it difficult for him so he had to step down with the same foot almost all the way. These steps are said to be the longest ones in the world. After this there was a delightful sight that met us, a hostel where we rented beds, there we could also shower and use a toilet for the first time in three days. There was also a restaurant and a cold beer was a very welcome thing. We were all so happy, especially because from the hostel, "Winhya Wayna", there was only about 3-4 hour walk to to ruins of Machu Picchu and the end of the trail. Still, there are 14 trails that go to the ruins but I don´t know how many of them are used.
The fourth day came and we woke up early as usual, but now there was another type of spirit in the air, knowing that there are only few hours left is a good feeling. The trail is really beautiful, in the edge of the mountain hills with the River Urubamba a long way down(about 1000 meters), not very stimulating for people who are afraid of hights, like Gurrý experienced. The forest was much more dense there and more animal life. Finally we climbed the last steps up to "Puerta del Sol", the Sun Gate, where the sight of Machu Picchu is exceptionally magnificent. We stayed there for about an hour, just looking and thinking "woooow, I did it, I really made it". The landscape is just fantastic, it is also at the same time frightening. The inner happiness takes over and you celebrate this victory with all the people there that also has "made it". More people came, clapping and singing, full of joy. This is probably one of few places in the world where only positivity and happiness rules and if it were possible to spread it, it would probably generate world peace, or almost that. From there it´s about a half an hour walk to the ruins of the lost city of the Incas. We hired a guide to inform us about the ruins and all the interesting things that took place there in the ancient times. He spoke english but I think it would have been better to let him speak spanish and then I, Ingi and Gurrý would have translated for the others that don´t speak spanish. I´m not going to talk about the history of the Incas and Machu Picchu but there are a lot of interesting sites on the Internet about it. After spending about three hours walking around it was time to go down the mountain with a bus to a little village by the River Urubamba called Aguas Calientes or "Hot Waters". It´s called that because of the hot natural spring waters that run there, just like in Iceland. This village is like a one big market, no wonder, the turism is the biggest industry there. Five of us went to the natural hot "swimming pool" and relaxed there, it´s their version of "Seljavallalaug" in Iceland. The Water runs out from the hills into the pool, there we lay until our skins started to look like pruins. Well, now we had to take a train back to Cuzco and the guys bought some rum for the trip. The "train station" was really funny, it´s one of the "main streets" of the village and so narrow that when it started to run we could reach out and grab the merchandise that hang out there, and alomost the food on the tables of the restaurants, but ofcourse we didn´t. There was a lot of fun in the train, people from various countries and a lot of singing, especially where we were sitting (Icelanders!). The train was so full that people where sitting on the toilets and lying all over the floors, and on each other. Finally we arrived to Cuzco late in the evening and took a taxi to our hostel, Royal Cuzco where Sayda was waiting for us, we had kept most of our stuff there to keep the backpacks lighter. We went out but were rather tired so it didn´t last long. But still, we had the energy to go to a restaurant and eat lama meat and try their special dish, a guiney pig. The day after we said goodbye to Cuzco and took the train to Puno, about a nine hour trip. The train started going were slowly, it had to zig zack down the mountain and then up again. We went through the high plain, again we went up to 4000 meters and we could feel the thin air again. We gave this train a new name ("Berjólfur") in honor of a ship in Iceland that is famous for making people seasick. The train moved so much (from side to side) that the toilet trips were not easy so we tried to make them as few as possible, it was a water toilet they had there, not like normally in the trains there where there´s just a hole in the floor. We didn´t have to wait long until the train broke down, a hydraulic tube broke so we had to stop for about an hour, they´re probably used to having to fix something out there. Just before arriving to Puno, a big stone came flying in through the window, we were all shocked but fortunatelly nobody got hurt. In Puno, a man that we had contacted in Cuzco was waiting for us and took us to a nice hostel. We explored the place and had a good meal in a restaurant. Ingi´s sister, Lára, had to be taken to a hospital because of bites she had received the first day in the Inca walk. Ingi and two other guys went with her and they all agreed that they would not want to be hospitalized there. She had to stay for the night, she had bloodpoision, and Ingi had to go to a pharmacy in the hospital to get all the stuff the doctors would need, a bit different from what we´re used to. Altoghether she paid about $10 for the service. The next morning she returned and said it was not a comfortable experience beeing there, but it made her all better. Now we went out to the lake Titicaca which is the biggest and highest navigational lake in the world, and also the biggest lake in South America. It lies at about 3700 meters and splits Peru and Bolivia. We hired a boat that took us to the isles of Uros, a floating islands made of dry grass. There are about 40 islands out there in the lake where the Uros indians live. Originally they made those islands because they could not afford to buy their own land so they just had this brilliant idea of making their own land out in the lake. Every two years they have to add to the surface because the grass rottens from beneath. Not only is the land made of dry grass but also most of their houses and boats. We stepped out on one of the islands and wow, was it strange, it was like walking on a mattress. Today these people live of the turism and it struck us to see only women there, they said that the men where out fishing. On this island there where six houses made of dry grass and one school made of other more normal stuff. There all the kids followed us inside and sang for us. We noticed on one of the island a pig, I guess they must be careful not to let the pigs eat their land, it must be kind of frustrating waking up one day and notice that your land is gone because the pigs have eaten it! We were taken on a trip on one of their boats, we were twelve that stepped on board and thought it would sink but so was it not. And they use the dry grass growing in the water also as food, we tried it out and it tasted just fine. These islands are really interesting and they have also made use of a new technology, the sun energy. On one of the islands there was a festival going on, which is probably alwas going on just to attrack the turists. Some of the guys danced with the indian women to the not so tactful music, it was so funny. After a great day with the Uros indians we returned to a stable land and headed in a little bus to Bolivia where we just made it through the borders before closing at six in the evening. Just behind the borders there´s a little town called Copacabana, like the famous beach in Rio de Janeiro, but the name is the only thing they have in common. We found a hostel and later on started to look for a restaurant but all of them closed, it was at ten oclock. We found one place where the owner opened op the door for us after another guy had just turned us down. They took our orders and than ran out to the store next door to get the drinks, it was so funny. Afterwards we hurried back to the hostel because they closed the front door at eleven. It was cold there and no heating in the hostel, but it was okay because we just put a mountain of blanket on top of us so we could hardly move. The next morning we went to another boattrip on Lake Titicaca but now on the Bolivian side, to Isla de Sol and Isla de la Luna or the Sun Island and the Moon Island. The Incas believed that over there the sun and the moon where born and at the Sun Island there´s a huge mark by a big rock where the sun was supposed to have jumped out, made this mark and the jumped up to the sky where it still is. There are no roads on these islands and no engine driven things, just walking paths. There´s about two hour boat trip back to Copacabana, the weather was really good, like it was the whole time, sunshine and calm winds. After packing our bags once and again we took a minibus to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, also the highest capital in the world, it lies at og 3700 - 4100 meters. We arrived late in the evening and found a very nice hostel downtown. It cost around $10 pr. person pr. night which though was a lot according to Ingi because when he had been there a few years earlier he paid 75 cents for the night but in a hostel not as nice as this one which had various luxuries like shower and toilet in the room. But when you stay in more expensive places you don´t get to know other travellers nor local people. Finally we slept just until we woke up but headed downtown around noon. It´s a very lively city and many things to see there. The markets are exciting with all kinds of art crafts and other interesting things. We did a lot of shopping, mainly because now there were only few days left of the trip and we didn´t have to carry the backpacks much longer. We were going to visit a prison where the prisoners take you on a tour around the place but when we got there they told us it was only on sundays so we would miss that. We also wanted to play golf on a private course, which is the highest one in the world (4200 m), but it was not possible. It would have been nite, my drive would probably have been pretty long there in the thin air. One thing we did was going to the Valley of the Moon ("Valle de la Luna"), where the landscape is like the one on the moon, like it is on the pictures from there (that is if they are from there). On the way over there we drove by a very rich neighbourhood where, among others, the president lives. It was all surrounded by a high wall and had guards all over. There is a lot of poverty there, I was told that a 5% of the people owned about 95% of the real estates and the money, there´s a lot of political corruption over there. All of us agreed that the people in Bolivia where not as nice as the ones we met in Peru, and the ones we met later in Chile but we were heading there next. We took a bus very early in the morning from La Paz and drove down into the desert and arrived to Arica, a city by the sea, the northern most city in Chile, very close to the border of Peru. We had decided to spend the last days relaxing there by the sea. There is not much to see over there but the people are very friendly. It was to cold to take a bath in the Pacific Ocean so we just walked around the streets. One thing is really interesting about this city located in the Atacama desert, the driest one in the world. We asked when was the last time it rained but got the answer that it just didn´t rain there, we asked again and put the emphasis on "last time" but the fact is that it is not known when was the last time. The story is that it rained there about 400 years ago which is just increadible. There is people there that has never seen the rain, maybe we should offer them some of ours (from Iceland). The end of the trip was close by, we had a flight reservation from Tacna which is on the other side of the border (in Peru) to Lima so we were going to take a bus to Tacna, it´s only about 30km apart. When we arrived to the bus station there where no buses there, just old american cars so one of them became our "busride". The last day was spent in Tacna while we waited for the flight to leave. From Lima most of us headed back home to Tulsa, Oklahoma but Gurrý went to Iceland and Lára to England. In the whole, the adventure was very successful and ended well. I just have to add one thing, the whole trip from Lima and back to Lima cost us (pr. person) on the average about 50.000 icelandic kronas, which included two flights inside Peru, bus trips, trains, hostels, food, boat trips and well, just about everything for 18 days.

 

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